Losing Game 1 to the CTBC Brothers 10-4 in the Taiwan Series opener on Saturday was a tough blow for the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions, but the potential loss of Gu Lin Ruei-yang for the game and the series might have been even worse.
In a rematch of the 2021 Taiwan Series, the fireballer was pulled at the beginning of the fourth inning due to back tightness, after tossing three scoreless innings before a sellout crowd in the 40,000-seat Taipei Dome.
Gu Lin felt tightness early in the game, with signs appearing as early as the second inning when he walked Tseng Song-en, Uni-Lions manager Lin Yueh-ping said after the game.
Photo: CNA
“He is [being checked] in the hospital now. We will re-evaluate his condition when he comes to the field tomorrow, but we have to extend the series first to give him a chance [to take the mound again],” Lin added.
Gu Lin, 24, led the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) with a 1.66 ERA over 21 starts. His 10 wins made him the only Taiwanese player among the 10 starting pitchers in the CPBL with double-digit wins.
Prior to Game 1, much attention had been paid to Gu Lin, who is widely expected to sign a contract after this season with an overseas franchise in the US or Japan.
Gu Lin’s early exit with the Uni-Lions leading 3-0 proved decisive, as the Brothers scored at least one run in the next three innings, including seven runs in the sixth inning that gave them an insurmountable lead.
In contrast, Brothers starting pitcher Jose de Paula rebounded from a disastrous first inning, in which he gave up three runs on three hits and a walk. The Dominican lefty shut out the Uni-Lions over the next six innings to be named the game’s most valuable player.
“The first inning was a bit chaotic, but I didn’t give up and always told myself to keep going,” De Paula said via an interpreter.
It was the Brothers’ ninth straight victory over the Uni-Lions in the Taiwan Series. The opening game win in the best-of-seven series also gave the team a 77.8 percent chance to capture this year’s title, said Blue Wei, an anchor for ELTA TV.
The next two games being played in the Taipei Dome would also help the Brothers, if past performance holds true.
While the Brothers played the league’s most games there with a league-leading .679 winning percentage, the Uni-Lions have played in the indoor baseball stadium only six times and recorded the league’s lowest winning rate there.
In its five games against the Brothers at the dome, the Uni-Lions lost four times.
Although Shohei Ohtani’s first trip to the Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series is a global sports event, it is particularly big in Japan. Fans from Ohtani’s home nation bought more World Series tickets for the first two games than from anywhere outside North America, ticket broker StubHub said. Dodger Stadium was packed to the rafters on Friday night for the start of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ showdown with the New York Yankees. “Ohtani’s first season with the Dodgers drew big international appeal, especially from his home country of Japan,” StubHub spokesperson Adam Budelli said. “At the beginning of the season, buyers from
The Major League Baseball World Series trophy is headed to Los Angeles, but the party is extending all the way to Japan. People milled around local train stations yesterday morning in Tokyo as newspaper extras were ready to roll off the presses, proclaiming Japanese stars Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto as world champions along with their Dodgers teammates after a stirring Game 5 victory over the New York Yankees. The 30-year-old is a national hero in Japan whose face adorns billboards and TV adverts all over the country. Ohtani this year became the first player in history to hit 50 home runs and
STAR IN DOUBT: After partially dislocating his shoulder in a feetfirst slide into second base, the status of Japanese slugger Ohtani is uncertain for Game 3 as he undergoes tests Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Saturday walked back to his dugout and made the slightest tip of his cap to cheering fans. He left Japan for moments like this, an opportunity to put the Los Angeles Dodgers in control of the World Series. Yamamoto allowed one hit over 6-1/3 innings and Freddie Freeman homered for the second straight night as Los Angeles beat the New York Yankees 4-2 for a 2-0 Series lead. However, the Dodgers head to New York uncertain whether Shohei Ohtani can play after their biggest star partially dislocated his left shoulder on a slide at second base. “We’re going to get
Three-time reigning world champion Kaori Sakamoto on Saturday led a Japanese podium sweep at Skate Canada, locking up a second straight Canadian women’s title despite two falls in her free skate. Sakamoto, who led 19-year-old American Alysa Liu after the short program, looked a little tight during her jazzy free skate, falling on a Salchow jump and again on a triple flip while fighting to hang on to a few other moves. Her second-best free skate score of 126.24 was enough for gold in the second Grand Prix event of the season in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She finished with 201.21 points, well ahead